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God damn you all, I feel so old, seeing so many people starting with Pokemon or PSO or the PlayStation FFs...

For me, it started in... Lord, it had to have been 89 or 90, I can't quite remember. All I know is that I wasn't a teen yet, and the NES was still en vogue. I never heard about Nintendo giving away Dragon Warrior with Nintendo Power, as I never had a subscription in those days, but I had a neighbor who had the game. I asked if I could borrow it. Making his distaste for the title perfectly clear, he nonchalantly let me have it outright. I absolutely fell in love with the game. There was something about the game that appealed to me, an overweight little kid in special ed who had all the trouble in the world making friends. I would spend ages just looking around, leveling up, cursing my misfortune every time I died. In many ways, it was one of the most annoying games I'd ever played, but I kept coming back. For the time, it was unheard of to have a game with this fully realized world with towns, where you had to search caverns and ruins instead of just going from left to right. It was different from Zelda, which just felt like maze after maze after maze - Tantegal felt like a place, something I could imagine people living in. That, more than anything, turned me on to RPGs.

I played whatever I could get my hands on from that point on. Obviously the rest of the Dragon Warrior series - even a battery file corruption after Hurricane Andrew couldn't stop me from beating III. FF IV and VI (II and III as I knew them at the time). Chrono. 7th Saga (though that one bested me). Breath of Fire... Hell, I even played Tecmo Secret of the Stars. I was of course mesmerized by the PlayStation's offerings in my beloved genre. Not just Final Fantasy VII and IX, but Suikoden, Legend of Dragoon, Threads of Fate, Grandia... There were so many. It continued when PSO came out and I logged an amazing amount of time - offline and on - on that damned game. I even played PSO on the Cube, putting up with several character wipes.

The Xbox exposed me to another one of those watershed moments for me, when I played The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. By this time, I was starting to feel more than slightly jaded once more. In Morrowind, I found what I found in Dragon Warrior - Not a collection of obvious levels, but a world, a place that felt more alive than anything before, and demanded exploration. While I only finished Morrowind when I had a good enough comp to play the PC version (memory issues on the Xbox made playing it for too long a chore), it left an indellible impression.

Today, my interests are more in the TES style of game, though I'm more than happy to play a well-designed modern RPG where I can find it. I love me some Pokemon, and have gone through both Old Republic games. But my fondest memories are of those days in my youth, walking around Tantegal and wondering why my neighbor hated the game so much.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"What the f--- is a Shakespeare?"
-Rico Valasquez, showing off why no one likes him.

I recalled something funnier earlier today. Final Fantasy Legend II was the first game I ever discussed online, back in 199X (whenever it was, maybe 1993 or 4). I was on my dad's computer, and came across a message board for video games. Someone had posted a question on FFL2 about good strategies vs. Venus, so I posted to say that it was possible to hit her with Sleep, if your mana was high enough. A few days later, my dad had to ask me what this strange email that he'd just received was all about: "Thanks! Now going into Venus' World with 4 mutants equipped with sleep books!" Hadn't known it would log his email address for that BBS...

I'm new to the forums all, but I read this feature and felt my story had to be told.. Now let me begin with an introduction of sorts, and then I will get into the real story. I'm like Masterchief up there, I'm not sure how old he is, but I'm 29, and my story begins in 1989 as well. I was your typical kid gamer, I liked mario games and what not. One day I was at my friends house and he had this big old box full of nintendo games that he didn't particularly care for anymore. One game in particular caught my eye, I don't know why, I think it was just the picture on the cartridge. A game called Dragon Warrior. I asked him if I could borrow it, and he barely gave it another look. "It's boring" he told me. When I started this game up, and played it for a while, I noticed something strange, something I'd never notice before with another game. I wasn't the one getting better. I didn't change the way I played. I didn't learn any tricks.. or use cheats.. the little man on screen was actually getting better... It was as if he was a real person, and he was literally honing his skills. This was true, honest to god "character progression". A phrase that meant nothing to me.. I'd never played D&D or any other table top game. I remember when I first started that I didn't bother going to any stores.. I just went out there with my bare hands and beat the living crap out a blue slime. I was surprised, but also thoroughly entertained. Then of course.. second battle.. what do I encounter? A red slime. no big deal right? Wrong! This was a battle for all F**king creation! for every 1 piddly damage that I dealt, he countered with 3 more to me. My 15 pathetic hit points were dwindling quickly but I finally managed to defeat him. I learned the hard way just what sort of game this was.

Fast forward however long.. I honestly don't remember, but I had gotten my hands on a copy of Dragon Warrior II.. shock and awe! it was as sequels were meant to be,, everything was bigger.. better. You could fight 8 monsters at once! you now had 3 people to develop and improve! It was an rpg newbs wet dream. Its true. I was still wet behind the ears, it couldn't have been terribly long after I'd played the first dragon warrior so I certainly didn't claim to be a pro. I decided, in the interest of making things easy for myself that I would just over level the hell out of myself, and not worry about running into any problems later on.. Well that worked just fine for probably 90% of the game, until I went through this cave, and came out in some sort of hidden valley or something called "Rhone". I walked north and just entered some random shrine, no encounters yet, didn't think anything of it. Huh.. a save and a free refill whenever I need it? thats kinda lame, right?! Wrong again!

So I walk outside.. and just explore a bit.. Battle. bam! bam! bam! dead. say whaaaaat? yea, destroyed in a matter of seconds by these horrific creatures, never before in the game had I been so ruthlessly manhandled. I believe it took me an entire afternoon of skin-of-my-teeth battles before I was finally strong enough to stand on my own two feet for more than one battle without retreating like a sissy to the shrine. Well, I finally make it through this Rhone place, and make it to Hargon's castle. The battle was pretty fierce, but nothing I couldn't handle. Too easy right? Wrong a third time!

Looking back i shoulda known it was kinda weird that I could still walk around after I beat him, but I guess my rpg instincts weren't fully developed yet. I walked out of the final bosses chamber and suddenly I'm surrounded by fire! what the hell? what did I do wrong? I'm attacked by some schmo who calls himself Malroth. I swear to god this son of a ***** pounded the crap out of me, it was a war! One party member dead... keep fighting, heal when you can, hit when you can... Two party members dead.. It was literally blow for blow at this point.. I'd get a hit in... use a healing herb, get another hit in.. using another healing herb, get another hit in.. This was it. I'd exhausted all my resources.. I hit him again I knew based on his hits I was probably dead on his next attack... But wait.. A small flicker of hope.. when he hit me this time.. Honest to god, I'm not making this up, I had 1 hit point left! I was out of healing items... My companions were both dead.. I was almost certainly dead, right? WRONG A FOURTH TIME!

Once again, may I be struck down by Hironobu Sakaguchi himself (I am perfectly aware he created Final fantasy and not dragon warrior), I am not making this up, He attacked me, I dodged, I attacked, I heard that wonderfully familiar lighting strike sound.. I scored a critical hit.. And I wasted his sorry *** right then and there. He disappeared off the black backdrop, and I watched the credits roll. Most unbelievable battle I had ever experienced before then, or have ever experienced since. The End

First RPG: The thing that really grabbed me about FF6 was the opening credits sequence. The music, the mechs, and the whole thing in Narshe...it really blew me away at the time. Coming off action games, platformers, and the like, FF6 was something totally different to me. It was about SOMETHING, not just some lame throwaway plot that was often so thin in that era as to be non-existent, and the characters had personality. It helps that the rest of the game was so great, but it's that opening sequence that served as my greeting to RPG's and boy, was that a great first impression. I began looking for more games, and my very next RPG, Mystic Quest, wasn't enough to knock me off this new path. I played that game to death and I still hold all JRPG's I play up to FF6. Kinda funny and somewhat illogical, but hey, that's what this thread is about, eh?

BoF2 and Lufia: The games that really sealed the deal for me were Breath of Fire 2 and Lufia. Lufia, although low-tech compared to FF6, still featured a lot of dialogue between the characters and I felt like I should care about them. It also starts off with that great opening dungeon where you feel like the great hero with the legendary sword. That carries you for the rest of the game when the Sinistrals start returning. Didn't I just defeat them? How come they're coming back? Wait a minute, I get to search for the Dualblade? Cool! These days, when I see a legendary weapon, all I care about is that stats. and whether it's better than what I've got.

Again with the theme of opening sequences comes Breath of Fire 2. It's so mundane and typical...and then suddenly nobody knows who you are and you're a stranger. I was fascinated by the why, and then you go into that dungeon and get your butt kicked by an incredibly cool looking boss. I spent the rest of the game hoping for another shot at that boss, and then the whole dragon transformations thing is introduced. The game just kept getting cooler. I can't stand BoF2 now, but at that time it was coolest thing ever.

I don't remember being blown away after that. FF7's FMV's were nice, and I enjoyed discovering hidden ruins in Morrowind, but it wasn't the same as the first RPG's I played.

I miss that sense of awe and wonder in RPG's. At that time, it didn't really matter how fun or "good" the game was, only what it featured ("OMG you get to transform into a dragon!").

My first experience with RPGs was Zelda II even if I didn't realize it at the time. Of course, I spent most of the time dying and seeing the accursed "Game Over: Return of Ganon" screen because I was roughly 7 years old at the time.

A couple of years and a move later, one of my brother's friends came over with Final Fantasy III for our SNES - he was going through Kefka's tower and had the whole party back, so I got to see the ending of FFIII without any context. Seeing Ultima blew my little mind, though. A couple of months later, he had traded for Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, so we borrowed Earthbound first. I thought "hey, this looks like fun" and there were two open slots, plus we had the guide. Despite doing it wrong for most of the game, I managed to get to Giygas and get to the end.

Of course, my brother and the friend decided to have me pray in real life to try and beat the game while doing the pray command in the game - and my-now 11 year old self went along with it until the end. So not only had I beaten my first RPG, I was introduced to the fine art of trolling.

I remember opening Christmas presents one year and seeing two games: Super Contra and Final Fantasy for the NES. Only one game was on my list, and it involved using the Spread Gun at every opportunity. Up until that point, I really didn't know what it meant to "equip" your gear. In Contra all I had to do was aim correctly for that magical S to drop. Looking back, both games reveal to me something special. See, both games really involved cooperation between two players, and I teamed up with my Poppa. He married my mom when I was 6, and we got along and all that, but it wasn't until he'd be super excited one day after my school day was over to tell me that he made it to the 2nd base in originial Contra all on his own did we both have a love for games.

So that Christmas we put aside Super C for a bit and tried out Final Fantasy. We didn't hit anything hard enough and always died. Literally we went outside town, hit random monsters, and wondered why we didn't survive. Then I remember picking up the instruction book (who did that back then?) and learned how to Equip. That capital "E" was great to see, and instantly, we felt assured after our first battle thereafter we knew what we were doing. Ahem...3 blown saves later (you had to hold the RESET button while turning off the power to save your game) and many hours, we got to enjoy beating Chaos. He had to beat Chaos first because I was out during summer vacation and visiting my Dad at the time. When I came back, Poppa handed over the reigns and I got my chance. It was great.

So that's my story. If games didn't come at that time, I'm not sure how my story would turn out. But because my Dad had included Final Fantasy when he bought me Super Contra for Christmas, my relationship to my Poppa started on what is today.